Derek Barton

Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton FRS FRSE[1] (8

Sir
September 1918 – 16 March 1998) was an English
organic chemist and Nobel Prize laureate for Derek Barton
FRS FRSE
1969.[2][3][4][5]

Education and early life

Barton was born in Gravesend, Kent, to William
Thomas and Maude Henrietta Barton (née Lukes).

He attended Gravesend Grammar School (1926–29),

The King's School, Rochester (1929–32), Tonbridge
School (1932–35) and Medway Technical College
(1937–39). In 1938 he entered Imperial College
London, where he graduated in 1940 and obtained his
PhD degree in Organic Chemistry in 1942.

Barton in 1954
Career and research Born Derek Harold Richard Barton
From 1942 to 1944 Barton was a government research 8 September 1918
chemist, then from 1944 to 1945 he worked for Gravesend, Kent, England
Albright and Wilson in Birmingham. He then became Died 16 March 1998 (aged 79)
Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry of College Station, Texas, U.S.
Imperial College, and from 1946 to 1949 he was ICI Resting place La Grange Cemetery, Texas,
Research Fellow. U.S.
Nationality British
During 1949 and 1950 he was visiting lecturer in
natural products chemistry at Harvard University, and Alma mater Imperial College London
was then appointed reader in organic chemistry and, in Known for Barton reaction
1953, professor at Birkbeck College. In 1955 he Barton's base
became Regius Professor of Chemistry at the
Barton decarboxylation
University of Glasgow, in 1957 he was appointed
Barton–Kellogg reaction
professor of organic chemistry at Imperial College,
London. In 1950, Barton showed that organic Barton–McCombie
molecules could be assigned a preferred conformation deoxygenation
based upon results accumulated by chemical Barton–Zard synthesis
physicists, in particular by Odd Hassel. Using this new Barton vinyl iodine procedure
Awards Corday-Morgan Prize (1949)
technique of conformational analysis, he later Tilden Prize (1952)
determined the geometry of many other natural product FRS (1954)[1]
molecules.
Ernest Guenther Award (1957)
In 1969, Barton shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Davy Medal (1961)
with Odd Hassel for “contributions to the development Nobel Prize in Chemistry
of the concept of conformation and its application in (1969)
chemistry."
Royal Medal (1972)
In 1958 Barton was appointed Arthur D. Little Visiting Knight Bachelor (1972)
Professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Copley Medal (1980)
and in 1959 Karl Folkers Visiting Professor of at the Priestley Medal (1995)
Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin. The same year
he was elected a foreign honorary member of the Scientific career
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6] Fields Chemistry
Institutions Imperial College London
In 1949 he was the first recipient of the Corday-
Institut de Chimie des
Morgan Medal and Prize awarded by the Royal Society
of Chemistry. In 1954 he was elected a Fellow of the Substances Naturelles

Royal Society and the International Academy of Texas A&M University

Science, Munich as well as, in 1956, a Fellow of the Birkbeck College London
Royal Society of Edinburgh; in 1965 he was appointed Doctoral Ian Heilbron
member of the Council for Scientific Policy. He was advisor
knighted in 1972, becoming formally styled Sir Derek
Doctoral Jack Baldwin
in Britain. In 1978 he became Director of the Institut
students Anthony Barrett
de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (ICSN - Gif Sur-
Yvette) in France. David Crich

In 1977, on the occasion of the centenary of the Royal

Institute of Chemistry, the British Post Office honoured him, and 5 other Nobel Prize-
winning British chemists, with a series of four postage stamps featuring aspects of
their discoveries.[7]

He moved to the United States in 1986 (specifically Texas) and became distinguished
professor at Texas A&M University and held this position for 12 years until his death. Insignia of a
Knight
In 1996, Barton published a comprehensive volume of his works, entitled Reason and Bachelor
Imagination: Reflections on Research in Organic Chemistry.

As well as for his work on conformation, his name is remembered in a number of reactions in organic
chemistry such as the Barton reaction, the Barton decarboxylation, and the Barton-McCombie
deoxygenation.

The newly built Barton Science Centre at Tonbridge School in Kent, where he was educated for 4 years,
completed in 2019, is named after him.

Honours and awards

Barton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1954.[1] In 1966 he was elected a Member of
the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[8] He was elected to the United States National Academy
of Sciences in 1970 and the American Philosophical Society in 1978.[9][10]

- Knight Bachelor (1972)

- Légion d'honneur (1972)

Personal life
Sir Derek married three times: Jeanne Kate Wilkins (on 20 December 1944); Christiane Cognet (died
1992) (in 1969); and Judith Von-Leuenberger Cobb (1939-2012) (in 1993).[11] He had a son by his first
marriage.

References
1. Ley, S. V.; Myers, R. M. (2002). "Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton. 8 September 1918 – 16
March 1998" (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.2002.0001). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows
of the Royal Society. 48: 1–23. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2002.0001 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsb
m.2002.0001). JSTOR 3650246 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3650246).
2. Albert Cotton, F. (2000). "Derek H. R. Barton, 8 September 1918 · 16 March 1998".
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 144 (3): 292–296. JSTOR 1515591 (htt
ps://www.jstor.org/stable/1515591).
3. Derek Barton (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/237) on Nobelprize.org
4. Barton's Nobel Lecture The Principles of Conformational Analysis (http://nobelprize.org/nobe
l_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1969/barton-lecture.html)
5. Video podcast of Barton talking about conformational analysis (http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/i
ndex.rss) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20060516234558/http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/vid
eo/index.rss) 16 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B" (http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMe
mbers/ChapterB.pdf) (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 May
2011.
7. New Scientist 10 February 1977 p. 319
8. "List of Members" (https://web.archive.org/web/20171008180538/http://www.leopoldina.org/
en/members/list-of-members/member/1814/). www.leopoldina.org. Archived from the
original (http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/list-of-members/member/1814/) on 8
October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
9. "D. H. R. Barton" (http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/47097.ht
ml). www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
10. "APS Member History" (https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Derek+Barto
n&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advance
d). search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
11. Coley, N. G. (2004). "Barton, Sir Derek Harold Richard (1918-1998), organic chemist |
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/
9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-69495). Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69495 (https://doi.org/
10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F69495). Retrieved 27 January 2019. (Subscription or UK public
library membership (https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public) required.)

External links
Derek Barton (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/237) on Nobelprize.org including the
Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1969 The Principles of Conformational Analysis

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